3rd CSA Week

What a beautiful evening out there!!!  A nice breeze and such clear air.  It was a busy harvest day today but everything ran pretty smoothly.  The peas are on full force which is great news for all you eaters but not great news for us pickers!!  They are a very time consuming crop to pick but they sure add a nice crunchy treat to the early season baskets.  I am hoping the peas that we left on the plants will mature quickly in time for Thursdays harvest!!

This weeks large share had 1/2lb snap peas, 1/2lb snow peas, baby carrots, lettuce mix, spinach, green onions, kohlrabi, garlic scapes, green cabbage, broccoli and baby hakurei turnips.  The grab box had Chinese cabbage, bok choy, beets, beet greens, swiss chard, purple top and red scarlet turnips.  It's a nice variety of veggies this week and much lighter on the "greens".  The herbs are coming but not quite ready yet. Hopefully next week.  Cilantro was requested alot today!!!

Things are growing really well.  The potatoes are just about to blossom and are looking really good.  I haven't dug up any as I"m sure they are still just tiny little specs yet but they'll be here before we know it!!!  We are now into baby carrot season.  We had our first harvest of these little beauties for restaurants this week and they were really lovely!!

So here is a bit of a break down on some of the different veggies in this weeks CSA baskets. 

Kohlrabi.  It kinda looks like a space creature but its down right delicious.  We were harvesting this morning and I cut one up with my knife and we ate it in the field.  It was so mild, crisp and yummy!!!  It tastes between broccoli and a mild turnip!! We all enjoyed them.  We grow two varieties and harvested one today while the other is still growing and is too small yet to harvest.  It was a bit disappointing as many of the kohlrabi's had "exploded" from being too mature!!  I had not looked at them lately and was sad to see so many that were beyond their "best before date". 

Garlic Scapes.  These cute little spiral beauties grow out of the top of the garlic plant and we cut them off so that the plant puts all its energy into the bulb and not into the scape.  Chop it up like a green onions and put in any recipe that calls for garlic.  It's lovely fried in butter with some onions and mixed in with potatoes!!  Also great just chopped and added raw to a salad.

Snap & Snow Peas.  So what's the difference??  I really like snap peas much better, so much more flavour.  Snow peas are typically harvested very "thin" and before the pea develops inside. I prefer to wait until the peas develop slightly as the flavour is much improved.  The snap peas are best when the peas have developed quite a bit.  You eat both pod and all!!!

Spinach.  We are harvesting two batches of spinach right now and some of it is a bit on the bigger side.  It might not be ideal for spinach salads but is excellent for wilted greens or throw some in your lasagne. 

Baby white hakurei turnips.  We've had these in past weeks but these little babies are the perfect size to be fully enjoyed!!!  When I was harvesting today I was really dehydrated and I just pulled a few and ate them right in the field.  They are so sweet, crunch and filled with so much water!!!  Instant relief!!

Here's a recipe that I shared last year that was very popular for using up that green cabbage!!

Lazy Cabbage Roll Casserole

4 slices of bacon, diced
1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
10 oz (1 can) condensed tomato soup
10 oz canned tomato juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
8 cups cabbage, coarsely shredded
1/3 cup uncooked long grain rice

Cook bacon in large frying pan until browned.  Drain.  Remove to plate.  Scramble fry ground beef and onion in same frying pan until onion is soft and beef is no longer pink.  Drain.  Add soup, tomato juice, salt and pepper.  Stir.  Layer cabbage in ungreased 9 x 13 inch pan.  Pack down.  Sprinkle with rice.  Scatter bacon over rice.  Spoon beef mixture over top.  Cover.  Bake in 350 oven for 1 1/2 hours.  Serves 6

Well, I should get to bed as my little "monster" alarm clocks will be going off at 5:45 like it or not : )  So nice to see everyone today, thanks so much for your support!!!  Below are some pictures from today's harvest and some pics taken from around the garden. 

Garlic Scapes

So yummy

Kohlrabi - beautiful

Kohlrabi - when its not so beautiful

Baby hakurei turnips headed for the restaurants

Baby purple tops

Baby carrots

Peas

Tomatoes in the greenhouse

Young broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower

Kale

Things are growing well

Have a great week!!

2nd CSA Week

What a hot few days it has been here.  Great beach weather but not great harvesting weather when greens are the main thing on the list.  Greens do not like to be harvested in any sort of heat.  They get all wimpy and look less than ideal.  So, that means harvesting as early in the day as possible, getting them cooled as soon as possible and then keeping them cold.  Our "cold storage" situation is less than ideal, two pop coolers which we got at an auction a few years back.  They work perfect but are way too small for the scale we are now producing.  So, the "cold storage" discussion is back on the table which means spending more money!!!  We want to build a wash/pack building which would have a walk in cooler and would also work as a workshop.  It's a pretty big investment and we were hoping to wait for a few years but we're bursting at the seams with our current system so some-thing's got to give. 

Things are growing really well.  We could really use some rain and its looking like we'll be getting some on Thursday which will be awesome.  The carrots have come along way in the past week and another big rain will really give them a boost.  The peas are in full flower and Ben & Jake have been strolling down the rows picking the tiny pods and loving them.  Next week they should be in the boxes which is always exciting.  I'm sure our CSA members will be getting a bit tired of all the greens of the past two weeks.

This weeks large share has lettuce mix, spinach, tatsoi, radish, red and purple top turnips, arugula, cress, green onions, tiny little broccoli heads and baby swiss chard.  The boxes were pretty much filled up but they were very "green".  The grab boxes had lettuce heads, chinese cabbage, bok choy, beets greens, kale and more of the above mentioned veggies.

Green onions

Tatsoi

Spinach

Arugula

Not very fancy but it does the job.  We really need a proper wash/pack building and a walk in cooler.  It sure would make life so much easier. 

Baby Swiss chard

Relaxing

Jake "working"

Ben loves to "work on the G", he takes good care of that tractor!!

 

 

 

Sitting pretty!!

1st CSA Week

And it begins again.  Another season of CSA farm fresh veggies officially began today with the Charlottetown delivery.  This year we are doing two pick-ups, one at the Arlington Orchard Farm stand and a second at the Culinary Institute.  We had alot of feedback last year from members living downtown or in the Stratford area that wanted a pick-up location closer to where they lived so now we have two pick-ups. 


It was a pretty "green" first share but that's pretty typical for the time of year.  The large box had lettuce mix, spinach, arugula, bok choy, baby red romaine or red oakleaf lettuce head, red scarlet turnips, white hakurei turnips, radishes and the choice between red russian kale and tatsoi.  The grab bins had dill, cilantro, swiss chard bunches, spicy purple mustard, wrinkle crinkled cress and purple top turnips. 

It was a pretty straight forward harvest morning.  Nothing out of the ordinary happened which is always nice.  I was ahead of schedule and feeling pretty confident about my planning for the CSA harvest/delivery.  It was really windy and as I was half way through packing the boxes early in the afternoon when I looked outside and saw the row cover blowing off my bed of peppers.   My rubber boots never moved so fast as they did right then.  I really did not want the whole thing to take off as it would be very time consuming and frustrating to try and put back on by myself and in those winds.  Luckily I got there just before the second side decided to blow off.  I decided to cover the peppers this season for a few weeks to try and give them a bit of a head start against the winds I knew were coming this week.  So, I got the cover back over the plants and reburied it.  It was an interesting experience.  Unfortunately that little detour in my day ended up making me rushed but luckily I was still able to leave on time and arrive at the pick-up on time and somewhat organized.

Here's a little picture tour of today's first CSA pick-up.

Dill & Cilantro in the grab box

The truck was pretty much packed.  I could have fit one more bin!!  Looks like we'll be upgrading the truck before next season if we're going to expand the CSA again.

Not a bad view from my first Charlottetown pick-up location.

Swiss Chard bunches

Purple top turnips

Forty bins all packed and ready to go

 Red Scarlet turnips

 Beautiful bok choy

 Tatsoi

 Red and white turnips

 Radishes

 Cress

 Kale

 Arugula

Lettuce Mix

I'm really looking forward to growing veggies for our amazing CSA members over the next 18 weeks!!!

Off to market we will go!!

It's that time of year when we start getting ready to head back to the Summerside Farmers' Market for our spring sales.  We do not have enough produce yet for our CSA program to start but we do have veggies ready to harvest so going to the market is a win win for us.  It's a great time to see our old customers and our market friends.  We will be selling some potted plants in a few weeks time (tomatoes, peppers, parsley & basil) but this week we will have lots of greens!!  Our greenhouse is just pumping these days and the greens are ready to eat!!  We will have spinach, purple mustard, tatsoi, swiss chard, beet greens, mizuna, arugula and lots of mixed greens for sale. 

It's such a busy time of year, sometimes its hard to know what to do first.  I'm obsessed with my to do list and check it many times a day to make sure I'm not forgetting to do something.  Nothing better than the feeling of crossing something off the list!!!  We have lots of veggies direct seeded in the garden and this week over 1000 transplants were planted which made a bit more room in the greenhouse for more seeding to be done.

Derek started building a raised bed maker last year but the season got busy and that project had to be shelved but he got back at it this spring and after many adjustments it seems that its going to work really great.  We have made 7 or 8 beds in a small section of the garden to use as our "experiment" section.  We will be planting crops that have "deep root systems" like carrots, parsnips and other veggies to compare with the non raised beds to see if there are any differences.

Raised bed maker

Lots of pictures to end this post.  We hope your all enjoying this warm spring we have been having.  It is pretty dry right now so some rain would be appreciated to keep the veggies growing well!!

Beet greens

Lettuce mix

Red kale

Spinach

Purple mustard

Mizuna

Arugula

The early garden, things are starting to grow

Peas are staked

Transplanting Chinese cabbage

Keeping plants covered to protect against insects

The end result with the new bed maker

New weeder is being built for our cultivating tractor, should be here soon!!!

Keep Calm and Farm On

I need to get a shirt with this saying!!!